Preload effects on behaviour of FRP confined concrete: Experiment, mechanism and modified model

Stress-strain models of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) confined concrete have been widely investigated; however, the existing load which is always supported by structures during the retrofitting phase, namely 'preload', has been neglected. Thus, preload effects should be clarified, providing insightful information for FRP retrofitting of structures with preload conditions. Towards this aim, experiments were performed for 27 cylinder concrete specimens with the diameter 150 mm and the height 300 mm. Three specimens were used to test the compressive strength of concrete to compute the preloads 20%, 30% and 40% of the average strength of these specimens. Other 24 specimens were divided into 2 groups; each group included 4 subgroups. Four subgroups were subjected to the above preloads and no preload, and were then wrapped by 2 FRP layers. Similar designation is applied to group 2, but wrapped by 3 FRP layers. All specimens were tested under axial compression to failure. Explosive failure is found to be the characteristic of specimens wrapped by FRP. Experimental results indicated that the preload decreases 12-13% the elastic and second stiffness of concrete specimens wrapped by 2 FRP layers. The stiffness reduction can be mitigated by the increase of FRP layers. Preload negligibly reduces the ultimate force and unclearly affects the ultimate displacement probably due to complicated cracks developed in concrete. A mechanism of preload effects is presented in the paper. Finally, to take into account preload effects, a modification of the widely used model of un-preload FRP confined concrete is proposed and the modified model demonstrated with a reasonable accuracy.